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PR ranked No. 7 on list of most confusing professions

When you talk to your parents about work, do they dig into the conversation and offer suggestions, or do they just sort of grin and nod politely?

If a new poll conducted by LinkedIn is any indication, the latter is a pretty familiar scenario for PR managers and social media managers. The business-focused social media site surveyed nearly 8,000 parents of workers worldwide and found that those two professions are among the 10 jobs parents had the hardest time wrapping their heads around.

About 42 percent of respondents who had kids working in PR management jobs said they couldn’t confidently describe what their son or daughter do for a living, putting it at No. 7 on the list. Social media manager is No. 3 on the list, with the parents of 59 percent of people with that job saying they couldn’t describe it.

The top three jobs on the list—one and two are UI designer and data scientist, respectively—are no-brainers given their highly technical nature. Some of the jobs lower down, such as PR manager, actuary, and radio producer are surprising to see, given they’re jobs that have been around for a long time.

LinkedIn’s solution to this parents-not-understanding conundrum is a push to make Nov. 7 “Bring Your Parents to Work Day,” a reversal of “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” which has been around since the early 1990s.

The LinkedIn survey found that about 46 percent of parents with children in the workforce don’t really get what their kids do, with about 8 percent admitting they only know the general field in which their child works. Many, about 35 percent, said they do want to know more.

The other 65 percent, one supposes, are OK with just grinning and nodding.